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| Sunday, 15 January 2006 |
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Arts Rekindling the pride of Lankan dance Over a period of three days, from January 20 -22 at the Lionel Wendt Theatre, at 7.00 pm, The Art of Chitrasena will unfold as a tribute to the guru. The program will include a special guest speaker each night, a friend or contemporary of Chitrasena.
In July 2005, Chitrasena passed away leaving his family, friends and students with a desire that burned stronger than before: to see his Kalayathanaya that once flourished as Sri Lanka's cultural ashram rebuilt as a National Dance Academy. The Chitrasena-Vajira Dance Foundation has developed a series of dance events for 2006, as fund-raisers to rebuild the Kalayathanaya. These performances will enable us to showcase the world-class repertoire of the Chitrasena Dance Company, thereby allowing us to rekindle our national pride in the dances of Sri Lanka and ensuring the continuation of a national dance academy to teach our art forms to future generations. The Art Of Chitrasena, a memorial show in commemoration of Chitrasena's birth anniversary is the first in this series of performances. The Art of Chitrasena will celebrate the life and work of Chitrasena and provide an opportunity to friends and fans to bid farewell to a great legend of Dance. Featuring excerpts from Chitrasena's and Vajiras finest ballets, Karadiya, Kinkini Kolama and Berahanda, as well as two new pieces conceived by Chitrasena's grand daughter Heshma, The Art Of Chitrasena will showcase the Dance Company's finest dancers and drummers in performances of new creations and revivals of old favourites alike. This show will also feature a speech each night, by three of Chitrasena's friends, namely Sunethra Bandaranayake, Henry Jayasena and Radhika Coomaraswamy. Capturing the sun on his way home by Aditha Dissanayake "If I can put one touch of the rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God," wrote Gilbert K. Chesterton. This is exactly what M.S.N.L. de Costa intends to do with his exhibition, Dusk and Dawn, held on January 21 to 23 at the Lionel Wendt - Harold Peiris Gallery.
He says he believes sunsets (and sunrises) too may be created by the same god to make the evening sky more beautiful than the rest of the day. Whether this is true or not I am sure you may have admired a colourful sunset at least once or twice in your lifetime. Perhaps you may have exchanged a few words about the beauty of the setting sun with somebody close by. Beyond that? "You would have forgotten all about them", says Costa. But now, if you make your way to the Lionel Wendt you will enjoy as many beautiful sunsets as you like taking all the time in the world to do so, in the secure knowledge that the scene before you will not vanish within a few seconds, forever. "Tanks filled with water during October/November are the best locations to enjoy the real beauty of a sunset, with the colours of the sky and the clouds reflected on the surface of the water," says Costa who calls himself a "Non-professional" photographer, but who, nevertheless seems to have mastered everything there is to know in photographing the sky in the evening with his PENTEX 50 MZ. "Admirable sunsets do not appear each and every evening in the sky. A clear sky is very vital with less clouds. Flat areas with a broad horizon may be recommended to view a sunset, rather than an urban area with tall buildings or a dense jungle" are some tips he wishes to give everybody else interested in capturing the sun on his way home. Costa believes photographic techniques are negligible in this regard, but sensitive films should be used with a broad aperture plus slow shutter speed. Manual operation of the camera is much more important than the controlling systems for a good picture. So, be there at the Lionel Wendt to view Dusk and Dawn at one and the same time, to recall Lord Byron's words in Don Juan (Canto II) "It was the cooling hour, just when the rounded red sun sinks down behind the azure hill, which then seems as if the whole earth is bounded, circling all nature, hushed and dim and still.... Dawn and Dusk sponsored by Rockland Distilleries Limited will be on at
the Lionel Wendt - Harold Peiris Gallery, 18, Guildford Crescent, Colombo 7
from January 21 to 23 from 9.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
M.S.N.L. de Costa, better known as Sunil Nath de Costa, a graduate in
mathematics and Western philosophy, called to the Bar in 1987, begins our
conversation quoting the Greek philosophers Aneximender, Anesimenis and
Anexigorus - "All the stars located in the sky during the night are being
created by the almighty God to make the night beautiful". 
